Date and pecan cake

Need to finish up the bag of pecans I bought from Julian Graves, so found this recipe on an Aussie blog. I've changed it a bit. It's supposed to originate in Israel.

2 eggs
180ml honey + 2 tbspns for brushing the cake
150ml buttermilk
1 tspn vanilla essence
3 bananas - mashed
300g sr flour
1 tspn baking powder
100g light brown sugar
2 tbspns cocoa
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn allspice
125g butter - softened
150g dates - stoned and chopped
125g pecans - chopped

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas 4

Grease and base line a 22cm springform cake tin.
Mix the eggs, the 180ml honey, buttermilk and vanilla essence together till smooth, then add the bananas.
Keep back 2 tbspns flour, then put the rest in a bowl with the baking powder, sugar and spices and mix well.
Add the egg mixture to the flour, and using a hand beater, mix gently, then add the butter and beat till smooth.
Mix the other 2 tbspns of flour with the dates and pecans and fold these into the mixture. Spoon into the tin and bake for about an hour.
Heat the other 2 spoons of honey and brush it over the cake while it's still warm.
The cake keeps for about 5 days in a tin.
It makes a nice dessert, warmed and served with ice cream.

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Date and walnut cake

Sorting out my new food cupboard this morning, I found a packet of dates which needed using. My Mum used to make a very moist date cake, so I hunted in her notebook for the recipe. Eureka!

175g dates, chopped
210ml boiling water
3/4 tspn bicarb. of soda
175g light [or dark brown] sugar
50g soft margarine [or butter]
1 egg, beaten
225g plain flour
3/4 tspn baking powder
40g walnuts, chopped
1 tspn cinnamon

preheat oven gas4/180C/350F
Grease and line a 20cm [8"] square cake tin

Put the dates in a bowl with the boiling water and bicarb and leave for about 10 mins.
Beat the sugar and margarine together [I used butter and light brown sugar, but my Mum used margarine and dark brown sugar] then add the beaten egg, dates and water.
Stir in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon [my addition!] and then the walnuts.
Put the mixture into the tin and bake for about an hour. Mine took 50 mins in a gas oven.
I decided to ice it with some glace icing.

                                 Mum's written that it keeps well. It's very moist.

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